A control system is a device or set of devices to manage, command, direct or regulate the behavior of other devices or systems. There are two common classes of control systems, with many variations and combinations: logic or sequential controls, and feedback or linear controls. There is also fuzzy logic, which attempts to combine some of the design simplicity of logic with the utility of linear control. Some devices or systems are inherently not controllable.
The term “control system” may be applied to the essentially manual controls that allow an operator to, for example, close and open a hydraulic press, where the logic requires that it cannot be moved unless safety guards are in place. An automatic sequential control system may trigger a series of mechanical actuators in the correct sequence to perform a task. For example various electric and pneumatic transducers may fold and glue a cardboard box, fill it with product and then seal it in an automatic packaging machine.
In the case of linear feedback systems, a control loop, including sensors, control algorithms and actuators, is arranged in such a fashion as to try to regulate a variable at a setpoint or reference value. An example of this may increase the fuel supply to a furnace when a measured temperature drops. PID controllers are common and effective in cases such as this. Control systems that include some sensing of the results they are trying to achieve are making use of feedback and so can, to some extent, adapt to varying circumstances. Open-loop control systems do not directly make use of feedback, but run only in pre-arranged ways.
Traditional wiring solutions include, for example, fuse panels with wiring harness kits. These kits are used, for example, with vehicles in order to provide a fixed architecture. Typically, a fuse panel facilitates all power distribution and a selection of switches provide flexibility in the wiring approach. Customers are therefore able to reduce costs up front. However, due to the fixed nature of the wiring, the systems are not easily modified after installation. As a result, this type of wiring solution incurs high installed costs, high capacity switches, no inherent circuit buffering, no ability for “smart” diagnostic and monitoring, no inherent user interface and no inherent RF control capability.
Other wiring solutions include VEC, DUAL-VEC, Smart VEC and other similar devices. These solutions are 3 dimensional metallic matrices where the interconnections are presented to the manufacturer for hard “programming” at the manufacturers site (the interconnects are welded together). These assignments create connections between the primary source of DC power, a fuse or relay (switching element) and an output terminal. This “programming” is permanent and inherently limited in several ways, as follows:                1. The 3 dimensional metallic matrix has a fixed 1 to 1 relationship between the input (control) and output (power distribution) and it's protection (fuse) and control (relay) element.        2. The 3 dimensional metallic matrix prohibits the arrangements of input and output control circuitry to exist on discrete connectors. Input control and output must be mixed on the same connectors which can increase the complexity of control and distribution wiring.        3. No VEC type solution is expandable without adding additional control circuit wiring.        4. Every control wire must travel from the switching element to the physical VEC device.        5. Control circuitry is limited to electromechanical relays        